I apologize for the paucity of posts lately, and that you haven’t been kept abreast of the happenings in Little Aleppo. They call it the Sunshine State, but it seems rather dark where I am right now.
Anyway, check out this collection of Beat Club performances.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRxvQmTTz5I
(Feel better!)
(I actually just read the story of how that song was created/recorded in a book called “Henry Cow: The World Is A Problem” by Benjamin Piekut. A very good, if dense and academic read. The Cow [early label mates on Virgin and collaborators with Faust] took the most pretentious aspects of prog, and the most impenetrable aspects of free jazz, and the most complex compositional approaches to classical music, and the most absurd music theorizing of various mad German professor types, and the most gibbering of left wing political rhetoric and practice, and they mixed it all into a THING that is not like any other THING, and which I love dearly, because of course I do. What’s somewhat fascinating and eye-opening in the book, though, is how many ostensibly NORMAL bands and music industry people actually glommed onto and supported them way back then. It couldn’t happen today, no way).
(And because everything is connected to the Dead, on page 220, in a discussion about the Cow’s innovative PA system, we learn: “The arrangement had been pioneered by the Grateful Dead, who had been performing in front of their famous ‘Wall of Sound’ PA system since 1973, and Balchin recalls trying to talk his way into the Dead’s sound check at London’s Alexandra Palace in September 1974 so he could sneak a peak at their setup. He was defeated.”)
You are not alone. Henry Cow is very good. Much love for the Cambridge/Canterbury scene.
TOTD hope you’re cool. If you need a laugh (or a dark laugh), Airplane! and Robocop hold up.
This guy or gal mandhikoras you enthusiasts should check out their channel so much good stuff. Monterey pop fest with gd footage,
https://youtu.be/zNTqxJiRAQs
Isle of Wight Festival . This
https://youtu.be/ECJlroW9FKc
And so much more. Great link totd thanks so much for sharing it- good find 🙂
The above YouTube channel also has many other long compilations of great performances and Isle of Wight and Monterey 67 festival featuring the gd.
https://youtu.be/zNTqxJiRAQs
You don’t owe any of us any apologies, ToTD. Sending thoughts of peace & light your way …
This cat Johnny out-Johnnys Johnny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2BuaoRJ9bI